Headlight for vehicles



W. CHURCHILL.

HEADLIGHT FOR VEHICLES.

'APPLICATION FILED JULY 14,1917.

Patented May 4, I920. 2 SHEETSSHLEET 1.

firm we. 1

.W. CHURCHILL.

HEADLIGHT FOR VEHICLES. APPLICATION FILED JULY 14, 1917 Patented May 4, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2 I ail ozwzq h UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM CHURCHILL, OF CORNING, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CORNIIVG- GLASS WORKS, OF GORNING, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF. NEW YORK.

HEADLIGHT .FOR VEHICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

Continuation in part of application Serial No. 142,711, filed January 16, 1917. This application filed July 14, 1917. Serial No. 180,559.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IVI LIAM CHURCHILL, acitizen of the United States of America,

and a resident of the city of Corning and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Headlights for Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

In United States Patent No. 1,193,873, granted to me August 8, 1916, I have shown a coverglass adapted for use in connection with a parabolic reflector and a suitable light source for bending or refracting a beam as a whole, the specific use there suggested being in connection with an automobile headlight whereby the beam will be so modified that no substantial part thereof will be thrown above a plane passing throughthe headlight and parallel with the roadway, this. being accomplished by arranging horizontal prisms on the cover glass.

I now propose to subject thefirays projected through a different portions of the cover glass to different treatment, so that while a part of such rays are diverted as beams, which do not rise above the plane of the headlights, other, rays are projected as a beam above the line parallel with the roadway, but away from the side of the road on which approaching vehicles travel, to avoid blinding the approaching driver, while throwing a sufficient amount of light ahead to permit the observation of distant road conditions and road signs. Thus in the United States where the rule of the road is Keep to the right, the construction is such that considering the illuminated area formed by a vertical cross-section of a beam projected from the light source and usual remet, and in quantities greater than that ad-- mitted to the upper left-hand quadrant.

Obviously for use in countries in which the English rule of the road is observed, the position of the upper illuminated and darli ened quadrants will be reversed, but in the followingI will describe my invention as constructed for use in the United States, the terms rightland left-hand as applied to the facing of the driver on a car equipped with my invention.

If two headlights are used on the same 'vehicle, they should, to obtain the results here described, be of similar construction and be counterparts of each other.

Thus, this invention contemplates the substantial suppression of a sector of less than 180 degrees of the illuminated field produced by a headlight of usual construction, and the utilization of the light now used in such sector to illuminate other parts or quadrants of the same field, and for this purpose consists of a novel arrangement and construction of parts as will be hereinafter claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawings in which corresponding parts are designated by corresponding marks of-reference,

' Figure 1 is a section from a headlight embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the cover glass of the previous figure;

Figs; 3 and 4 are vertical and horizontal sections on lines w -w and ac -m respectively of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is aperspective view showing the projection of a beam in accordance with this invention;

Fig. 6 is a plan View of the front portion of a car equipped with a pair of headlights embodying my invention,. the path of the downwardly projected rays being indicated in full lines and of the laterally projected rays in dotted lines.

- Fig. 7 is an elevation of a cover glass embodying my invention, and adapted for use in connection with a light source out of focus.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4:, the light source 1,. shown as an electric lamp, is properly located in respect to the reflector 2, preferably of parabolic shape, and a cover glass 3 is arranged in front of the reflector. The

cover glass has formed thereon a series of horizontal'prisms A whose bases are downward, and a series of vertical prisms B with bases'to the' right.

Thehorizontal prisms A deflect the rays projected therethrough by the reflector downwardly, so that none of such rays are pro- -cut out from the upper left-hand quadrant of what would otherwise be the illuminated 'area of the headlight. This is graphically shown in Fig. 5 in which the path of the rays as they would be projected by the reflector isrepresented by the full lines, causing an illuminated field 4:, the field more closely approximating a circle the more the source approaches a sphere. In practice, however, the last of these conditions is never present. The size of the illuminated area will depend upon the different dimensions of the light source and its position in respect to the focal point of the reflector, while the shape of the illuminated area will depend on the shape of the light source and its direction in respect to the axis of the reflector. In practice, these conditions are always suchthat thebeam reflected by the reflector is never exactly cylindrical and that at some point in front of the headlight,

the illuminated area is much larger than the diameter of the reflector and of the theoretically cylindrical'beam projected thereby,-

and thus a more or less circular field 4 of illumination is produced.

Considering the beams as modified by the prisms, it will be noted that the ray a directed toward the top of thefield is in its passage through'the horizontal prisms A refracted toward the axial line 16, and

to at: In the same way'the ray 2"3"-'b projected. toward the upperleft-hand side of the field 4 is refracted downward to If. In'a similar manner other .rays' passing through the horizontal prisms on the cover "glass are bent downward from the two upper quadrants Theray" 3c reflected frojrii'ftlifedight emitted from a part of the light source in front of the focal point,

V and which without the cover glass would bethrown to the upper left-hand quadrant prism B is deflected to theright too. In a similar manner all rays which are projected from the reflector in a direction to fallin the IeftThand upper section, are, as

plain if desired. -ofnthe field, in passing through a vertical they pass through the vertical prisms, deflected to the right, causing the illuminated field to assume the form illustrated by shading in Fig. 5. a

As shown in Fig. 5, the field of illumination produced by my improved headlight.

has its lower right-hand portion formed both by the downwardly and by the laterally deflected beams. It is therefore of maximum intensity, as it isdesirable to illuminate the side of the road and the ditch adj acent to the vehicles. The left-hand lower portion of the field is illuminated only by the downwardly refracted beams, such illumination being made sufficient for this portion of the field by a proper selection of the area of a cover glass having horizontal prisms thereon. The other portions of the field, viz., those due to the light which is projected without downward deflection to the right, aredue only to the rays deflected by the vertical prisms, and in my preferred construction such last-named portions of the field are of less intensity than the lower lefthand portion of such field.

While I have shown a cover glass as havingthe prisms formed integral therewith,

sired conditions without affecting that essentialfeature of my invention, which consists in taking that part of a beam'of light which would go to form anupper quad rant of the illuminated field and deflect it to one side to illuminate a corresponding and opposite quadrant. Thus, as a specific example of such a construction, the vertical prisms may be placed on the upper part of. the cover glass. 1

Obviously, moreover, the prisms both vertical and-horizontal may be varied among themselves to suit the peculiarities of' the light source and the reflector to more per;

fectly obtain desired results.

The results which wehave described can also be secured by the use of a parabolic reflector in which the lamp isset out of focus one way or the other and by covering one quadrant of the opening of the parabola with a cover glass so formed insuch'quadrant that it will deflect the light which would otherwise be projected to the upper left-hand quadrant of the illuminated field,

the other portions of the cover glass being Assuming that the lamp is inside the focus of the reflector, this result can be secured by using a cover glass, such as is will deflect the light toward the right, for in case of a source inside the focus, light fromthe upper part of the parabola is projected upward; light from the right-hand side isprojected toward the right, etc.

' If the lamp is placed in frontof the focus of the reflector, light from the lower part of .the reflector w1ll illuminate the upper part of the field; light. from the right-hand side of the. reflector will illuminate the left-' hand side of the field. With this arrangement of light source, it will 'therefore be necessary, to obtain the results described, to provide the lower right-hand portion of the cover glass-with refracting surfaces which ,will deflect the light downward or toward 1 the right, or both.

It will be understood that my inventio contemplates thesubstantial suppression of illumination in'a sector of less than 180 degrees of the field, (preferably a quadrant) and 'the deflection of light which would otherwise fall thereon, to another, and preferably, the opposite upper quadrant.

Whenused inpairs, as is generally the..-

case with automobile. headlights, the glasses forming the pairs should give a lateral deflection in the same direction (that-is tosay,

. broadly speaking, similar glasses shouldbe asymmetrical above'the axis thereof.

having retracting, faces thereon to bend part of the raysfrom the reflector downwardly y 2. Ina light, projector for 'a vehicle, the combination with alight source, of a; reflector anda cover glass, the cover glass by Letters Patin respect to the axis and to bend part of the rays asymmetrically to one side of the axis without substantial downward bending.

I 3.'A cover glass having on one portion thereof horlzontal prisms whose bases are downward for causmg a downward dlVGl 7 v tion, and having vertical prisms on another gence of the rays passing'through such porportlon for causing a divergence of other rays passing-through such last-named portion to one side only. 1

1 4. A cover glass having thereon refracting faces for producing a downward diver gence of the rays, and a lateral divergence of the rays. passing therethrough, the refracting faces being so constructed that'the field of illumination has the lower portion thereof illuminatedboth by the lateral and the downwardly deflected rays, and has its upper portion illuminated only by the later ally projected rays.

-5. A projecting element for af vehicle', in-. .cluding a cover glass having thereon refracting faces forproduc'ing a downward divergence and a lateral divergenceof rays passing there'through, such refracting faces beingj-of-sucha character that the laterally and downwardly projected rays unite-in forming a field-of. illumination in front of the vehicle belowthe level ofthe project- 'ing element and to one side of the axis thereof, the downwardly projected raysin- .dividuallyilluminating a field to one side of such portion of double illumination, and

the laterally deflected rays illuminating a .field above and to the other side .of such portion of double-illumination, the lastnamed portion of the field being the less illuminated.

6. A pair of cover glasses for a vehicle,

the glasses having thereon refracting iiaces for producing a downward divergence, and

a divergence to one and the samezside only,.

of the rays passingtherethrough.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name-this 23rd dayof June 1917.

' WILLIAM oHURoHiL 

